Saturday, July 11, 2009

Where I've been lately

Life has been busy, and I haven't had as much time on-line as I have in the past. (Right now I'm choosing between blogging and washing dishes/doing laundry/updating the handout for the "Easy Pop-Up Cards" workshop I'm teaching next week. Guess which choice won! But the other tasks will be waiting for me, alas.)

My parents just visited this past week, so I spent time with them up on my sister's farm, which is about 50 miles north of me. Beyond the photo of my dad's quilt from my last post, my family generally refused to pose for me, and what photos I did take, they don't want posted in public, so you're stuck with these portraits of some of my sister's animals. I am now Farm Paparazzi! Shown above is Ginger in mid-yawn. Here she is being pretty and windswept.
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The chickens are always a hoot, and by accident I made my first on-line movie since the button on my camera had slipped to video mode while it was in my pocket. It's only 24 seconds, and you can hear me saying "chick, chick, chick" in a vain attempt to get them to come towards the camera.

The little rooster was more intent on jumping up to eat the red flowers growing on the old smokehouse, but I could hear a chicken marching up behind me and turned the camera to find Henrietta, who is the head honcho among the chickens (and has the dogs and cats in awe of her as well). She was quite peeved that I had called her but had no food! So I leave you under her watchful eye.
IMG_7599x Henrietta's headshot

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dad's Quilt FINALLY Done!

IMG_7668x Dad's Quilt finally completed
Blogged for Fiber Arts Fridays
I did actually finish this earlier this year, but didn't officially sew the label on and give my dad his very belated multi-year birthday/Christmas present until this week. Thanks goodness my parents are patient (because my mom is still waiting on hers)!

This is a throw quilt, approximately 65x70", pieced & quilted on my Bernina. The pattern is a hexagonal block design from Maxine Rosenthal's book One Block Wonders. I had previously been doing Bethany Reynolds' hexagonal Stack'n'Whack quilts, but those required choosing an accent fabric to coordinate with the main fabric, which was often the most difficult step in the whole process! One Block Wonders can be made with just one main fabric (though I did choose to put an accent stripe around the border because I happened to have some matching solid green cotton). When I started this quilt several years ago, I did write down the name of the fabric line, but don't ask me where that information is now! I think it was from a Tracy Porter line for Joann Fabrics...
IMG_7663x Corner of Dad's QuiltIMG_7664x Back of Dad's Quilt
The backing is some vaguely Art Nouveau pattern that I bought on clearance some years ago and have been meaning to use for ages. I'm hoping to get Mom's quilt finished a lot faster. Really!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Art For All 2009 Recap

What I got in trade at AFA '09
Here's a brief visual summary of the creative excitement that was A4A 2009, the first (North American) meeting of members of the on-line ATC site ATCs For All. Above is the bulk of what I got in trade from other attendees, mostly ATCs and a few charms. There was a 24-hour art room where everyone could chat and play with art supplies around the clock if they wanted (I tended to get to bed before midnight however!)
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I also took workshops in Hand-carved Stamps,
Carved Stamps Workshop
Embossed Metal ATCs,
Metal Manipulation
Calligraphy,
Calligraphy Sample
Mixed Media Paper Beads,
Mixed Media Paper Beads
and Drawing Fun Faces Without Fear (not the official title :D)
Quiet Smile
I taught a Faux Tintype ATC workshop - here are my students hard at work:
IMG_7427 Billie Jean, Kimberly & Katie hard at workIMG_7426
I do wonder what the other hotel guests thought of these crazy people wandering around in tiaras....
IMG_7372 Crazy Cat!
Finally we all owe a huge thank you to our fearless organizer Cathy, aka Crazy Cat (above), who volunteered who knows how many hours putting this event together! A whole lot of pix are on my Flickr.

Ten Two Studios 4th Anniversary Giveaway

Lisa's celebrating with a daily giveaway July 1-5, 2009. Leave a lovely comment on her daily eye candy post and be entered for a chance to win a huge package of collage goodies! Plus each day she's giving out one free six-month subscription to the Monthly Muse. Good Luck!
Joy

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bad Girls, or things I couldn't show you before :D

So remember a while back I gave a hint of a project I was working on for the Ten Two Studios design team? You can see the whole thing now here (Just don't tell my mom! ;o)

Lisa also named a kit after me "Carolyn's Artsy Medals" and they are already sold out!

Some other things I couldn't show you. You can see the pile of bottle caps I made for the Art For All Goody Bag here.

I can now also reveal the photos I submitted to the "Are You Your Artspace?" contest at Art For All where people were supposed to identify whose work area was whose. Yes, my work areas are very messy....
IMG_7261 Sewing tableIMG_7258 Dining room table
I think only 2 or 3 people guessed mine correctly (OK only about 10-11 people were hardy enough to submit their guesses - it was a tough contest) and a couple of people thought my space was Muppin's because of the fabric stuff. Nutty Nanner guessed mine correctly because I had lent her my hand-drill not realizing it was visible in the bottom corner of the right hand photo!

I'm a little afraid of what sort of traffic this post's title will attract....

Monday, June 22, 2009

Back Home from Art For All

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Whew! I'm exhausted! (And still have one more load of laundry to wash and a whole lot of boxes to unpack) Art For All was exciting and exhausting! That's me above with Nancy (Nutty Nanner) and Kimberly (kbutts). Here's my roommate Cheryl (Muppin) hard at work in the 24-hour art room.
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When I finally unpack everything, I will take some photos of the art I made in workshops. I took a calligraphy class from Bonnie (Balletbon), Metal Manipulation from Kimberly, Hand-carved Stamps from Shelly (Shoreart) and Mixed Media Paper Beads from Amy (amyfaerie). In the meantime, there's a whole Flickr set of mostly unlabeled photos from the event here.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

On the road in Indiana

Just a quick post while my friend Bill is letting me borrow his computer. I'm in Indiana with very limited internet access visiting friends from grad school. Friday and Saturday, I'll be at the Art For All meeting of folks from ATCs For All Above are some of the Artist Trading Cards made to trade at the event. You can see more of them on my Flickr site.

More excitement as time allows!